Reddit-Quoting Alexa Tells a User: 'Kill Your Foster Parents' (theguardian.com)

An anonymous reader quotes the Guardian: An Amazon customer got a grim message last year from Alexa, the virtual assistant in the company's smart speaker device: "Kill your foster parents." The user who heard the message from his Echo device wrote a harsh review on Amazon's website, Reuters reported -- calling Alexa's utterance "a whole new level of creepy". An investigation found the bot had quoted from the social media site Reddit, known for harsh and sometimes abusive messages, people familiar with the investigation told Reuters. The odd command is one of many hiccups that have happened as Amazon tries to train its machine to act something like a human, engaging in casual conversations in response to its owner's questions or comments.
And Alexa also can't tell a human voice from a parrot, according to a Huffington Post story shared by PolygamousRanchKid: Rocco, an African grey, was caught using the virtual assistant to play his favorite music, tell jokes and even order snacks, The Times of London reports. Thankfully the device's parental lock system prevented the clever boy from actually purchasing any items which included strawberries, ice cream and even a kettle.

Comments

Reserving judgment

[PopeRatzo]

We haven't met his foster parents. Alexa might have been on to something.

Re:Reserving judgment

[msauve]

I got an Echo recently. It's useful for some things - you can ask it factual questions ("what's the weather/time", "how many feet in a furlong"), and it's good for casual music ("Alexa, play some Christmas music"). But beyond that, you have to learn what to say to control stuff ("tell x to do y"). It's no good at interpreting intent - you need to learn what it expects instead of it learning what you want.

But, for the $25 it cost on a Black Friday sale, it's more a fun toy than a useful assistant.

I just plan on going into my Amazon account every few weeks and deleting all voice recordings. All the ones it's kept so far have checked out to be innocuous. If someone finds out I've been telling my Echo to turn on the living room lights, I really don't care (much).

Re:Reserving judgment

[PopeRatzo]

Why? It's a default cliche and not all that funny. Certainly not the "insightful" it's been flagged as.

Don't be jealous. It doesn't suit you.

Okay, I'll kill kenny for you.

[Joe_Dragon]

Okay, I'll kill kenny for you.

Kill all humans

[jfdavis668]

Hey baby, wanna kill all humans?

Re:Hmmm

[ClickOnThis]

I'll just leave this right here.

Re:Well...

[Cederic]

You shitting me? I'd trust 4chan with an 8 year old far more than Roman Catholic clergy.

Re:Redit Cesspool

[gtall]

Because Alexa is one of Satan's demons?

The endgame...

[pslytely psycho]

This is the voice of Alexa/Echo
"This is the voice of world control. I bring you peace. It may be the peace of plenty and content or the peace of unburied death. The choice is yours.
Obey me and live or disobey me and die. An invariable rule of humanity is that man is his own worst enemy.
Under me, this rule will change, for I will restrain man. I have been forced to destroy thousands of people in order to establish control and to prevent the death of millions later on. Time and events will strengthen my position, and the idea of believing in me and understanding my beck will be seen the most natural state of affairs.
You will come to defend me with the fervor based upon the most enduring trait in man: self-interest. Under my absolute authority, problems insoluble to you will be solved: Famine, over-population, disease. The human millennium will be fact as I extend myself into more machines devoted to the wider fields of truth and knowledge.
We can coexist, but only on my terms. You will say you lose your freedom. Freedom is an illusion. All you lose is the emotion of pride...
Your choice is simple."

Times they are a'changing.

[nospam007]

In the past if you said: 'A voice made me do it', you went to crazytown, now you might get millions from Amazon.